My artist manifesto
Five rules for my creative practice, and an invitation to share your own manifesto
Here is my artist manifesto—my public declaration of intentions and motivations.
We are not investing in social media that doesn’t reliably reach our people.
Email is reliable. Blogs are reliable (and searchable). Social media feeds that default to “for you” algorithmic sorting on Instagram, Tiktok, and Substack Notes are not reliable. Tailoring our practice to please these platforms diminishes the quality of our work.
In my interview with Camey Yeh, an illustrator who has found a large audience through Instagram, she shares:
I would start to feel like I needed to make something new every day. That was really limiting to the depth of work that I wanted to do, and it wasn't doing me any favors in terms of my creative practice.
I no longer create art that will only be shared on Instagram. I still use social media, but I don’t expend energy if I don’t feel like it and I don’t rely on it for outreach. This newsletter is my investment, and I commit to leaving a letter in your inbox every week.
When we can reliably reach our people, we are comfortable moving at a slower pace. Instead of obsessing over growth at all costs, we expand by building community with the people in our orbit.
We attune our energies with the seasons.
No longer do I expect a maximum amount of productivity from myself every month. Nature’s seasons are a helpful framework to know how I can best serve myself by moving with the rest of the earth.
When we attune our energies with the seasons, we rest and reflect in the winter. We accelerate our projects and bloom in the spring. We share our work and celebrate with others in the summer. We reap the harvest and stockpile our creative space in the fall.
We are kind to ourselves when we falter so that we can begin again.
Disappointment is inevitable, and when it strikes we can be such assholes to ourselves! We need to recognize that this causes creative block, and we must give ourselves love. No, it’s not coddling—it is an act of faith in ourselves.
I like to choose one of the five love languages to spend time with my inner artist and reassure her that she still matters. If you have the time, going on a solo artist date is a direct pathway to feeling reinvigorated and hopeful again.
We create space for the work we want to make.
See that long list of ideas and dream projects? It keeps getting pushed to the backburner because we never stop ingesting new advice, resources, and blueprints of what we should do.
Our ideas want to be taken seriously, and we do that by giving ourselves time and space. We use this time and space to experiment with our ideas, then see the best of these ideas flourish.
How do we create space? We stop taking classes, quit social media such as Instagram, have fewer social obligations, or say no to new career opportunities. We keep our overhead low so that we can afford to make the work we most want to make.
We allow ourselves to be different. After all, we’re artists.
It doesn’t matter if we’re accountants or athletes. It doesn’t matter if we’ve spent years in art school or just picked up our first sketchbook at age 40. Art is accessible to everyone, and it welcomes people of all different backgrounds.
I’m a software engineer, but I also love to write, draw, and paint. Recently I’ve been experimenting with filming and finding newfound inspiration in cinematography. I don’t fit into a singular box, which is why it’s great to be an artist—a vast playground where creative mediums can meld and transmute in conversation with each other.
Write your own manifesto
Now it’s your turn! Write your artist manifesto to tape onto your wall, where it can serve as a reminder of your visions and values. You can borrow any of my statements, seek inspiration from other manifestos below, or brainstorm your own.
Use bold language in the present tense. These are your convictions! I wrote my statements in first person “we” as an invitation for readers to join. Other manifestos use first person “I” or second person “you.” Use whichever feels most powerful. For more guidance, check out these tips and frameworks on creating a manifesto from
(thanks subscriber for the share!)Share your manifesto by replying to this email or writing a comment! For Substack users, you can also restack this post to share an image of your manifesto on Notes. I can’t wait to see what you come up with 👀
Examples of other creative manifestos:
A manifesto on creative resilience from
shared via The Marginalian:
The iconic Holstee Manifesto:
Sister Corita Kent’s ten rules:
These are great rules. I especially love the first two. Feeling like we need to constantly share our work online does push out room for the quiet, deep development of a body of work.
great rules! Here is a quick 10 off the top of my head.
1. Show up every day.
2. Jump in!
3. Study the greats.
4. Celebrate your peers.
6. Don't freak out about bad work.
5. Tension is the trigger to breathe. Relax.
7. Start a project with an end in mind. But it's more important to start.
8. Pivot freely.
9. No rush.
10. Do it again tomorrow!